Our Fascination With Feet: Foot Fetishes Explained

Foot fetishes are becoming more widely accepted, but how did our fascination with feet begin?

The subject of foot fetishism may be a taboo, but it’s incredibly common. Sex studies have found that feet are the most fetishized body part after genitals, half of those with a fetish for body parts are turned on by feet and two thirds of those with a fetish for objects find sexual excitement from shoes and socks. But what exactly is it about feet that gets so many people hot under the collar? Read on to find out everything you need to know about foot fetishes.

Over the years significant studies have been undertaken into the mysterious workings of the brain and sometimes scientists have come up with answers to questions they didn’t even know they were asking. One Neuroscientist believes his studies into phantom limb syndrome have offered up and explanation for foot fetishism.

Phantom Feet

Vilanayar Ramachandran conducted and intensive study into phantom limb syndrome which led to some surprising discoveries concerning foot fetishism. Whilst looking into the phenomenon whereby people who have lost limbs feel as though their missing parts are still there, he found that the human brains ‘body image map’ tells us where our limbs are so we can carry out tasks like walking or picking objects up. When a limb is lost the brain can rewire itself so that the person feels as though their missing limb is still there. That’s fascinating enough, but what’s even more amazing is that Ramachandran discovered that in many cases people who had lost feet reported that their phantom foot felt ‘sexy’ and could gain sexual pleasure and even orgasm from physically stimulating the space where a foot should be or simply thinking about and focussing on their phantom foot.

Before Ramachandran had begun his study it was already noted that in the human brain, the areas associated with the feet and genitalia sit next to each other. During the 1950s prominent neuroscientist Wilder Penfield found that sensation in the body was mapped to particular areas of the brain and using electrodes placed on the heads of willing volunteers, he pinpointed the strip of brain tissue which focussed on sensory perception.

Whilst the majority of mapping appeared to be in logical order with face next to lips, thumbs next to hands and so on, Penfield found that sensory perception for the feet was adjacent to that of the genitals. Until the study into phantom limb syndrome was conducted, no one had considered that a foot fetish could be caused by the brain ‘cross wiring’ between feet and genitals, but Ramachandran’s studies concluded that that those who are turned on by feet may be experiencing sexual stimulation because the wires in their brain linked to the feet and the genitals have become mixed up. However, he could not confirm that ‘crossed wires’ are responsible for the fetish in all foot lovers and his study does not explain why far more men than women appear develop a foot fetish. But according to healthboards.com, foot fetishes may be just as prevalent in women as it is in men.

Thanks to books like ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’, talking about and experimenting with sex is becoming more common, which could mean that over the coming years we’ll see a huge growth in the number of women ‘coming out’ as foot lovers.

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